


A Walking Hazard

by Leni



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dark Castle, Gen, Pre-Curse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-14
Updated: 2014-11-14
Packaged: 2018-02-25 07:18:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2613080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumpelstiltskin discovers the downside of hiring an inexperienced maid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Walking Hazard

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Mahmfic at [Comment Fic](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/572598.html?thread=80074678#t80074678). Prompt: **you know how we always joked that someday I'd burn the kitchen down... well...**

Rumpelstiltskin clamped his tongue between his teeth, less he gave into the laughter building in his chest. He'd come running at the sound of the explosion, expecting to find the girl burned, unconscious, or worse (it wasn't until later, after realizing that he'd never suspected an escape attempt, or sabotage, that he admitted he must be starting to trust Belle), and instead he'd found her raging at a fire-breathing stove, waving an empty bucket at it and nowhere near ready to run from the burning kitchen.

One of these days, he suspected, he'd find his maid doing battle against a real dragon.

He wondered if the sight would be any more ridiculous than this one.

Her skirts were singed, the blue now grey with ash and soggy where she seemed to have poured some of the water on herself; and the color on her cheeks was higher than Rumpelstiltskin had ever seen it.

But what pushed him into laughter was the expression on the girl's face.

She wasn't frightened of the fire, or guilty about whatever she'd done to cause this, or even reasonably worried about her master's reaction . 

Belle looked _furious_ instead.

Would she ever cease to surprise him?

"When I said you were inexperienced enough to burn down my fire-proofed kitchen, I _was_ teasing," he said to announce his presence, as it had yet to register on the girl when she was watching carefully the miscreant flames. The stove and its oven were a sure loss, and the fire was doing it best to have the nearby counters join in their fate. "However did you manage this?"

She grunted in response, tossing her useless bucket aside and looking around for anything that could help.

Rumpelstiltskin did not like to be ignored. "Now this is a new way to burn my dinner, dearie." He made sure his tone matched his usual complaints when she presented him with overdone potatoes or bland chicken. In all truth, it had been weeks since he'd needed to peel a coal-like layer from his meal, but her improvement was slow. "Is it some kind of protest? Because this-" he waved a hand around the mess his kitchen had become "-shows true dedication to your cause. Congratulations!"

That earned him the full attention of her impatient scowl. Belle didn't answer except to give him a glare over her shoulder, pointing mutely - and quite commandingly - at the fire. Command him, was she indeed! He arched an eyebrow, but she seemed to take his gesture as a reminder to be polite rather than the chastisement he'd intended.

With as much dignity as she could gather, with her dress in tatters and sweat running down her face to her neckline, she drew herself up straight. "Unless you want this to spread, and be forced to find a new castle," she said, waving more sedately at the fire beside her, as if it were a potion he'd spilled on her floors, "I suggest you take care of it."

He had already made sure that the flames wouldn't touch her, as the stubborn thing wasn't moving away from the danger. Didn't need to let her know that, did he? "Hmm," he demurred. "I _am_ getting tired of the cobwebs."

"There are no cobwebs," Belle almost hissed, obviously insulted by this slight against her housekeeping skills.

She'd just gotten a fire started. Did she really think she had any room to talk!

And, also... Teasing her was too much fun. "I meant the _lack_ of them, dearie. Clean halls don't scare my customers properly, you know."

Used to his contrary nature, his maid didn't even deign that with a roll of her eyes. Instead she set her hands at her hips and glared some more.

"Fine," he huffed, lifting a hand and tossing a simple spell into the flames. "Satisfied?"

Belle looked around the charred ruins of the kitchen, and it was as if her anger had been doused along with the heat of the room. She nibbled on her lower lip, gave a few careful steps to peer into the tray that peeked from the oven door and the black lumps it now carried. Giving him a quick glance, she made to clean her hands against her skirts - a nervous tell, Rumpelstiltskin had learned - and dropped them when she remembered the state of her clothing. Finally, she looked him in the eye and said hesitatingly, "I don't suppose..."

Intrigued, because she sounded as if she were about to ask for a favor, and Belle wasn't so foolish as to enter any other deals with him, Rumpelstiltskin leaned closer. "Yes?"

"I don't suppose you could have dinner some place else tonight?"

Of course. The girl worried about _him_ , when she'd also been left to go hungry.

"Nope," he said, waiting until she looked disheartened before, with a single gesture, he put the kitchen to rights and made two bowls of soup appear on one of the counters. "That should suffice, shouldn't it?"

Her expression had now shifted to one of curiosity, as she eyed the bowls, then took a cautious sniff at their content. Satisfied with her inspection, Belle turned back to him. "You don't need a cook, do you?"

"I don't _need_ anything," he replied, unwilling to explain that, no matter how it fooled the other senses, the taste of magicked food didn't equal the worst dish she could conjure from her pots and pans. She'd discover it soon enough, anyway. "And if you're to serve me at the dining hall, you cannot look like that." He gave a disapproving glance at her dress, as if she'd chosen to cover her skirts in ashes and watery spots. After he gave a florid wave toward her, Rumpelstiltskin nodded when her everyday blue dress returned to its... well, to some kind of glory, anyway. It wasn't like she needed to look the princess these days. Blue was the best color on her, anyway; even better than gold. "There. That's passable."

Belle looked down at her dress and then glanced at him, a little smile growing on her lips.

Rumpelstiltskin was slowly getting used to those smiles, he found. She was a walking hazard, yes, she was. He just wished she would be content to endanger his belongings alone, instead of smiling and getting closer to his-

No. He had no feelings. Of course not!

Unaware of his thoughts, Belle kept smiling, and now she even curtsied at him. "Thank you, Rumpelstiltskin."

He fought the urge to bow to her. He was the master; she was the maid. Best to keep the lines drawn. "Just make sure it's still hot when you get it upstairs," he told her, trying for haughtiness and too aware that she was smirking at the attempt.

"Of course," she said, and now it was her turn to hold back laughter.

But she let him go without comment, and Rumpelstiltskin told himself he wasn't grateful for the reprieve.

 

The End  
13/11/14


End file.
